Selecting Objects in Word with the Selection Pane. Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint. If you have ever inserted an object (like a picture, shape, or clipart) into a Word document and then made the unfortunate move where you pushed it behind your text. When you work with many graphical objects such as pictures, charts, text boxes, shapes, etc., it is sometimes challenging to select one of the objects - it can lay behind other objects, or it can be too small, etc. Word proposes an excellent feature named Selection pane to help navigate between different objects and groups.

• Select Objects Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Word Select All Objects
• How To Select Objects In Word
• How To Select Multiple Objects Word
• Select Multiple Objects In Microsoft Word

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Introduction

There may be times when your documents have multiple objects, such as pictures, shapes, and text boxes. You can arrange the objects any way you want by aligning, grouping, ordering, and rotating them in various ways.

Optional: Download our practice document.

Watch the video below to learn more about arranging objects in Word.

To align two or more objects:

1. Hold the Shift (or Ctrl) key and click the objects you want to align. In our example, we'll select the four shapes on the right.
2. From the Format tab, click the Align command, then select one of the alignment options. In our example, we'll choose Align Right.
3. The objects will be aligned based on the selected option. In our example, the shapes are now aligned with each other.

Note that the Align Selected Objects option is selected by default, which allows you to align objects without moving them to a different part of the page. However, if you want to move the objects to the top or bottom of the page, select Align to Page or Align to Margin before choosing an alignment option.

To distribute objects evenly:

If you have arranged your objects in a row or column, you may want them to be an equal distance from one another for a neater appearance. You can do this by distributing the objects horizontally or vertically.

1. Hold the Shift (or Ctrl) key and click the objects you want to distribute.
2. On the Format tab, click the Align command, then select Distribute Horizontally or Distribute Vertically.
3. The objects will be evenly spaced from one another.

Grouping objects

At times, you may want to group multiple objects into one object so they will stay together. This is usually easier than selecting them individually, and it also allows you to resize and move all of the objects at the same time.

Select Objects Microsoft Word

To group objects:

1. Hold the Shift (or Ctrl) key and click the objects you want to group.
2. Click the Group command on the Format tab, then select Group.
3. The selected objects will now be grouped. There will be a single box with sizing handles around the entire group so you can move or resize all of the objects at the same time.

To ungroup objects:

1. Select the grouped object. From the Format tab, click the Group command and select Ungroup.
2. The objects will be ungrouped.

Ordering objects

In addition to aligning objects, Word gives you the ability to arrange objects in a specific order. The ordering is important when two or more objects overlap because it determines which objects are in the front or the back.

Understanding levels

Objects are placed on different levels according to the order in which they were inserted into a document. In the example below, if we move the waves image to the beginning of the document, it covers up several of the text boxes. This is because the image is currently on the highest—or top—level. However, we can change its level to put it behind the other objects.

To change an object's level:

1. Select the object you want to move. In our example, we'll select the image of the waves.
2. From the Format tab, click the Bring Forward or Send Backward command to change the object's ordering by one level. In our example, we'll select Send Backward.
3. The objects will be reordered. In our example, the image is now behind the text on the left, but it's still covering the shapes on the right.
4. If you want to move an object behind or in front of several objects, it's usually faster to use Bring Forward or Send Backward instead of clicking the other ordering command multiple times.
5. In our example, the image has been moved behind everything else on the page, so all of the other text and shapes are visible.

If you have several objects placed on top of each other, it may be difficult to select an individual object. The Selection Pane allows you to easily drag an object to a different level. To view the Selection Pane, click Selection Pane on the Format tab.

To rotate or flip an object:

If you need to turn an object so it faces a different direction, you can rotate it to the left or right, or you can flip it horizontally or vertically.

1. With the desired object selected, click the Rotate command on the Format tab, then choose the desired rotation option. In our example, we'll choose Flip Horizontal.
2. The object will be rotated. In our example, we can now see the bubbles on the left that were previously hidden behind the text boxes.

Challenge!

1. Open our practice document.
2. Scroll to page 2 and select the picture of the waves at the top of the page.
3. Use the Rotate command to flip the waves vertically.
4. Use the Send to Back command to move the waves behind the Martinique text box.
5. Move the Martinique text box so it is near the bottom of the waves image.
6. Make sure the waves picture and Martinique text box are no longer selected. Hold down the Shift key, then select the text boxes containing Cleaning, Maintenance, Repair, and Restoration.
7. Click the Align command, and make sure the Align Selected Objects option is selected. Select Align Right and Distribute Vertically.
8. With the text boxes still selected, group them.
9. When you're finished, your page should look something like this:

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How to select all embedded objects in Word?

Microsoft Word Select All Objects

If you need to select all embedded objects in Word, how do you select? Now this tutorial will introduce you following methods to select all embedded objects in the whole document or the selection of the document.

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Select all embedded objects with the VBA

Instead of select embedded objects one by one, the VBA is an easier way to select all embedded objects.

VBA code can select all embedded objects, do as follows:

How To Select Objects In Word

Step 1: Press Alt+F11 to open VBA window;

Step 2: Click Module from Insert tab, put the code into Module window;

Step 3: Click Run button or press F5 to apply the VBA.

The VBA code to select all embedded objects:

Sub SelectAllEmbedObjects()
Dim tempTable As Object
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
ActiveDocument.DeleteAllEditableRanges wdEditorEveryone
For Each tempTable In ActiveDocument.InlineShapes
tempTable.Range.Paragraphs(1).Range.Editors.Add wdEditorEveryone
Next
ActiveDocument.SelectAllEditableRanges wdEditorEveryone
ActiveDocument.DeleteAllEditableRanges wdEditorEveryone
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Select all embedded objects with Kutool for Word

How To Select Multiple Objects Word

It is painful and time consuming to select all embedded objects one by one, if you are not good at Macro. It is so complicated to use VBA to select all objects. Now recommend you an easier way to select all embedded objects. With one click, you can select all objects in the whole document or a part of the document.

Kutools for Word, a handy add-in, includes groups of tools to ease your work and enhance your ability of processing word document. Free Trial for 45 days! Get It Now!

Click Kutools > click Paragraph Select in Paragraph group > click Select All Embedded Word Objects Paragraph from drop down list. See screenshot:

Note: if you only want to select all objects from a selection of the document, please select a part of the document first, and then apply this tool.

For more detailed information about Select Embed Object Paragraphs of Kutools for Word. please visit: Paragraph Select feature description

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Select Multiple Objects In Microsoft Word

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• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Thanks for the help.
  But in my case i would like to compare two word files that are embedded in Excel 2013.
  Can you help me with the code for that.??
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  this software is perfect